Giacomo Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi offer vivid explorations of interior worlds of memory and grief and exterior worlds shaped by family dynamics, money, and power. These imaginative paired productions, conducted by Stefano Teani and directed by Stefanos Koroneos, give emerging singers the space and structure to engage deeply with the operatic language of verismo — honoring the emotional force of Puccini’s music while learning how dramatic truth is carried, word by word, through text, style, and delivery.

In this approach, Suor Angelica is treated not as a museum object, but as a living work shaped by the stories of women compelled to obey, driven by love, and forced to surrender the unspeakable, in a world inhabited by memory and ghosts. Gianni Schicchi, by contrast, explores the truths and lies within relationships, exposing outsized moral and emotional dynamics contained within tight domestic spaces. Bold, campy, and confrontational, this interpretation examines questions of moral superiority and the collapse of decency — revealing how comedy, cruelty, and meaning emerge through language itself.

Emily makes her role debut as Suor Angelica in this exciting production.